“Okay, then.”
Ivy turned the corner onto her street.From behind the oak tree, a large male figure stepped onto the sidewalk.There was a weapon, and it was pointed directly at Chloe’s chest.
“If you so much as flinch, your friend is dead,” Clay said through bared teeth.“And both of you are coming with me.”
Shit.
Chloe leaned in and grabbed Ivy by the arm.Out of the corner of her mouth, she said, “Run.”
14
Beau fought dizziness for half the drive to Austin.Adrenaline ran out long before he hit Buda, a small town twenty minutes from Austin, give or take.He was at a disadvantage, being twenty minutes behind Chloe and Ivy.A helluva lot could happen in that timeframe.
They would have arrived in Austin roughly ten minutes ago.Thankfully, Ivy had input her address into his phone’s map system, or finding her would be like throwing a dart at the wall.He could hope that he hit the right address, but that would be wishful thinking.He’d stopped wishing and believing in magical endings the first time his mom had come home depressed after disappearing for a whole weekend.He couldn’t have been more than six or seven years old.The neighbor lady who used to watch him after school had worn a path in her carpet while waiting for his mother to arrive.He couldn’t remember her name, only that she’d been retired and had lost her husband.The memory was odd because Beau distinctly remembered wondering how she could have “lost” a grown man.He’d taken the comment literally instead of the way she’d intended.
Usually, a memory like that one brought a smile to his lips.Not the part about his missing mother returning too broken to fix, but the losing a grown man bit.It was good to have a sense of humor when you had a childhood like his.He clung to anything remotely funny and milked it.
In this case, he recognized it as his brain's way of trying to distract him from his worst fears.Ivy wasn’t picking up her phone.She hadn’t answered his texts, either.Same thing for Chloe.Did they realize how much more that made everyone panic?
Signs for Buda came and went as he floored the gas pedal even harder.He could only hope there were no cops around with radar guns as he sped toward downtown Austin and Ivy’s condo.
Rather than squealing tires when arriving at Ivy’s condo like a wild banshee, he decided to take a calmer approach.Parking in the neighborhood across 12thStreet seemed like the best play.She lived on the second floor, so he needed to be careful poking around.He didn’t need anyone calling the law on him.Getting hauled away wouldn’t do Ivy or Chloe any good.It wasn’t like he could tell a cop there was possible danger.Travis had set the stage for the law to swing by and check on her condo, so he needed to be careful.
He slowly exhaled the breath he’d been holding as he parked the truck and then cut the lights off.Some called him old-fashioned, but he immediately disabled automatic features on every vehicle he drove.Fortunately for him, his siblings felt the same way.Maybe they had more in common than any of them realized.Shared DNA had to account for something, right?
Beau struggled against the acid churning in his stomach.The bile rising in the back of his throat wasn’t helping.
He gave himself a mental headshake and refocused.This pain was nothing compared to the kind that would accompany losing Ivy or Chloe, or both.Nope.Couldn’t go there.He was most likely overreacting.His stress levels had shot through the roof the minute he’d gotten the text from his mother.
Hold on a sec.It dawned on him the message might not have come from her.Couldn’t someone have hacked into her phone and sent the message from a remote computer?It was possible she was out there somewhere, hiding, instead of being held captive.Luring him to the campsite might have been a means to draw her out, as well.
He mulled over the thought as he crossed 12thand entered her neighborhood.
Should he just walk up to her door and knock?Listen?Ring a doorbell?Hell, he didn’t know what he was about to encounter.The only thing that mattered was getting eyes on Ivy and Chloe and seeing for himself that they were fine.Then, he would text Travis, who was just as worried as Beau, so he could spread the word to the others.Everyone would be on pins and needles until Beau gave the word that everything was okay.
He walked up and down the street, passing her building several times to ensure no one was hiding behind a wall, shrub, or tree trunk.When he was certain no one was there who shouldn’t be, he moved behind the wall next to the parking garage.
On the street, he noticed Chloe’s car was nowhere to be found.Did that mean she’d already headed back to the ranch?If so, wouldn’t she have contacted Travis by now?He, in turn, would’ve let the group know she was fine.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as a cat crawled out from behind the wheel of a vehicle.It was dark, but the parking garage was lit enough for him to see the walking path clearly.He moved around to the front of the building.
It was long past midnight.This day had gone on for what felt like forever.His stomach growled.The power bar he’d eaten on the way here wasn’t enough to keep his stomach from making noise—noise he couldn’t afford to make at the wrong moment.Food was the last thing on his mind right now.If his stomach would stop reminding him that he’d skipped supper, that would be great.
After circling the building, he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.Thankfully, Austin was a twenty-four-seven type of town, so no one would suspect him walking around at night unless condo management had security cameras.He’d walked as nonchalantly as possible given the amount of pain he was in.
He took a deep breath and headed toward her building.The external staircase made it easy to get to the second floor, or would have if his body wasn’t currently broken.The effort it took to climb the stairs reminded him how few reserves he had left.He probably should have brought some kind of weapon with him.
Though in his condition, that could end up getting him into more trouble.Without more adrenaline, he wouldn’t have much fight in him.Desire didn’t always equal results.His stamina was shot to hell.
Beau stopped in front of 2B and listened.As far as he could tell, there were no external security cameras.They could probably be the size of the head of a pin, but larger cameras would be more of a deterrent, in his opinion.
No sounds were coming from 2B.He hadn’t seen Chloe’s sedan parked on the street like he assumed he would.Would she park in a visitor spot in the garage?Were there visitor spots in the garage?He should have checked.
He pulled out his cell and sent a text that he’d arrived.
Then, he lightly knocked on the door.
No response.
